“Card payments are more convenient and benefit the country
more,” Natalya Synyavska, director of the bank’s information
technology and payment systems department, told reporters today
in the capital, Kiev. “Money on a card is in the banking system
and works for the economy.”

The regulator may move to limit the size of cash
transactions, Synyavska said.

The central bank has submitted a draft law under which
electronic payment transactions are only permitted through a
newly created Ukrainian network. The bill, which parliament
approved July 4 in a first reading, threatens Visa Inc. and
MasterCard Inc., which the regulator estimates control 93
percent of Ukraine’s market.

Visa wants to set up a parliamentary working group to
discuss the legislation, Jean-Marc Tonti, the company’s business
development general manager for southeast Europe and the
Commonwealth of Independent States, said in a July 10 interview.